Let's think about this logically. You think a referee is going to see that call and intentionally not make it, on a stage like an Olympic final? Her name is now attached to this game, everyone who thinks of it thinks of that missed call and how heavily she influenced the game. Her reputation is on the line when she misses call like that, and you think the no-call was intentional? I just don't believe that.

False, we (refs) don't give a shit especially at her level and experience. She is an outstanding referee, she just happened to make a bad call. When you take the course and become a FIFA referee (which takes years of training, assessments and politics) I want to hear how you never screwed up a call.

Yea, she's amazing and even the best make mistakes. However, a Koman Coulybali she is not. She's also the same one who got groped on the pitch in that gif floating around. Can't remember if it was intentional or not.

She didn't give a fuck about anything really. Tons of non-calls, Morgan getting knocked over while making a run, plenty of trips and dirty tackles on both sides. She didn't call much until late in the game.

It was a damn missed call, Japan had chances and so did the USA. I don't think this game was heavily influenced. The Ref is human and just missed a call, it happens. The game was incredible to watch and was absolutely what I expected from a Gold Medal game.

Not to mention that it was as intentional as they come. Her arm starts out next to her body and she swings it out as the ball reaches her. If she truly meant to hit that with her leg then she must have some shit hand-eye coordination for a professional athlete.

I agree...maybe post a video of the ref seeing it and call it disgusting.

This is the same shit Suarez got last WC. Anyone that knows anything about soccer knows that this shit happens. It may be a bit dirty, but its the same as a player tripping someone when they are on a breakaway and there is no one but the goalie in front.

Whether or not the ref calls it is a different story. If she had been caught then she would've gotten a red and it would've been a PK, just like the rules state. Fair and square.

Exactly. Just like the intentional foul in basketball. The rules are judged to give out just punishment. If a player takes that into account and accepts the consequences to save the team, then yeah, it's a good play.

It's not the fact that she did it which is disgusting (although some people may argue that Suarez's ball was definitely going in, while this ball wasn't), but the fact that the clear penalty wasn't awarded.

I mean c'mon! She extends her arm so much to block the shot there's no chance of it not being a penalty. Changed the outcome of a big, big game.

I'm not American, but I was cheering for the U.S that game, and even so, it still hurts to see people's hardwork and training being flushed down the drain like that because of poor, terrible call (or lack thereof).

Most likely because people feel that it was only not called because it was the USA. I am from America and my first thought when I saw this was that had the team roles been reversed there is no chance that doesnt get called on Japan.

Hold on. Why immediately place the favoritism on a country? There were three Germans and one Argentinian. The ref is one of the best female referees in the world. I think it would have remained the same. Remember that the only carded player was Wambach. There are always blown calls. Would there still be outrage if Japan managed to score with all those near misses? Probably not. 26th minute means that there's still time for some great shots and Japan did just that. They were fantastic and I doubt they're going to want people to claim they could only equalize with a penalty kick.

It's not disgusting, it's a judgement mistake from the ref, it happens a shitload of times during a lot of football games since the beggining, it's practically part of the game. You know, /r/soccer is so concerned and disgusted about this, dives and another "not so good" aspects of the game, it looks like you guys started to follow the game last week.

Imagine if the "hand of god" have happened last week, /r/soccer would have flooded into a teary river of disappointment.

I don't mean any disrespect to people new to the game, but I think a lot of people on this subreddit are new to the game and don't really understand it very well yet. If this "disgusts" them, they should probably find another sport to watch.

It happens, but it's still a shitty situation, and I believe technology should be used to fix these issues (seriously...every other major sport out there uses replay to verify calls)....

I think people are just angry that luck plays such a big part of the game.

The athletes in both teams train their asses off to get there, the coaches probably spend countless nights up reviewing tapes/tactics...all this hard work to be decided on a single factor, luck, is just plain shitty, and needs to be removed from soccer/football.

If there was an asterik for blown calls you'd have to mark almost every finals game in history!

You'd have to mark just about every single game in general. Refs miss calls. It happens. As someone who refs a youth league it really gives me respect for officials. It's hard work. You can't see everything.

But when their own team get the benefit "It's human error and not a conspiracy". I think the reffing was bad(or you might say Disgusting) in the semis (and here), but there were legions of Chelsea fans calling it a conspiracy. Also Anders Frisk saga, poor chap had to resign because of bad reffing in a game. He was pretty decent overall, but everybody has bad days.

I still don't understand why people vilify him for that play. He sacrificed himself for the good of the team. He broke the rule, the punishment was administered, and then that guy missed the penalty shot. If they want to say they were screwed out of a goal, they need to get FIFA to change the rule so that a goal is automatically awarded.

I love the play as well. The only thing that could have made it better would be if it occurred during a semi-final game. He would be essentially surrendering his boyhood dream (the chance to compete in a World Cup final) in order to keep his team in the competition.

I don't disagree, I was just pointing out a recent and very memorable incident of a player handling the ball in the box. Suarez took full advantage of the rules of the game, it just happened that in that situation it worked in their favor. 9 times out of 10 Ghana converts the penalty, giving Ghana the goal, and leaving Uruguay down a player.

Since the whistle blew right after the missed penalty to signal the end of extra time the game likely would have ended as soon as the goal went in. If I were a Ghana fan I would hate him and I would love him as a Uruguay fan. I can't say I'm neutral since I support Liverpool but I would want a player on my team to do that 100% of the time if it was the difference between a sure goal and a 5% chance that he'll miss the penalty.

It's definitely not "disgusting" on her. There's no way this is a conscience decision, just an instinctual action.

She moves her arm to give herself more torque and lift her leg and body faster, and in the process deflects the ball. It's a penalty, but it's not intentionally cheating or anything. The tenths of a second between the ball being struck and the handball is not enough time to do anything more than instinctual movements.

She may well have merely been balancing herself, but to say that there is "no way" that she intended to block the ball with her hand is just ludicrous. As if you magically know the inner workings of her mind and body at that moment...

To me, looking at the replays, it's an open question as to whether she intended to block the ball with her hand. I'm leaning on "no", but you can't say there is "no way" that she might have intended it... Footballers do stupid shit and make poor decisions all the time; it's certainly plausible that she, in the heat of the moment and the pressure of the situation, made a poor decision and brought her arm down intentionally. To me, that's no less plausible than her arm having come down involuntarily in order to balance herself.

It was a hand ball. It was a clear hand ball. It should have been a penalty. It wasn't given.

I the roles were reversed, I would be absolutely livid. So I completely understand Japanese fans (maybe even the team) feeling as though they were cheated.

The player who should have been whistled for the penalty is a hard-working player who attempted to stop it with her leg, but failed to do so and it struck her arm. It's not a dirty play, it's a bad break for Japan and a VERY lucky one for Heath and the US. It's really unfortunate, but when you have the best referee on the planet miss the call it's just something you have to move on from.

I am not afraid to acknowledge that the US probably wouldn't have won gold had this penalty been given and converted. The way the US defended, I thought surely Japan would score more than the 1.

Carli Lloyd played a phenomenal game and Hope Solo made a huge save when it counted most.

The sad thing for Japan is they shouldn't have even needed the penalty. They had at least 3 or 4 other golden chances to find the back of the net, but somehow steered their shots high or wide.

The US took their opportunities when the Japanese didn't. That's all there is to it.

I'm glad the US got some silverware for the first time in a while, they deserved it. I'm also glad Canada and Japan got medals as well, because each of those 3 teams are world class and deserve all the recognition they get (and then some). I'm glad it was a good, competitive final. The level of play in the women's game has risen so much, and it will be exciting to see the next time any combination of the US/Canada/Japan trio meet.

Hats off to all the teams really, because they came back just a year from an electrifying world cup and put on a tournament at the olympics that was so entertaining and exciting to watch. I really can't say enough about how much fun these last two major women's tournaments have been from a fan's perspective.

As a fan of the sport in general, I applaud all the athletes for showing the world how this sport is played at the highest level. That was a blast to see.

How on earth can you call this "disgusting?" I'm not even convinced it was intentional! Are you suggesting she wasn't being sportsmanlike for not stopping the play and demanding a PK against her own team? It was a blown call, it happens. Criticize the ref for missing it, not the player.

i dont see why people are blaming the americans.... its not their fault the refs made these calls. would you have liked the defender to go up to the ref after this and tell em to give a penalty to the other team? cause no footballer would ever do that

Eh, the act of the handball itself wasn't disgusting, I think just the lack of the penalty, and the fact that a goal there could have changed the outcome of the game (so basically the whole situation) is disgusting.

How many people here have actually reffed? It is an extremely stressful job, and you are GUARANTEED to miss at the very least 1-2 calls per game. Unfortunately, sometimes it happens to be stuff like this instead of maybe a bit of a reckless challenge that has no real impact. Think about how often you watch a game and are angered at a missed call...it happens pretty often.

You say it like they sit at a around table and discuss which penalties ought to be given and which shouldn't. The only way you could make the statement you made and have it be relevant is if the exact same referee was in both games. In this instance, we simply have no idea what the new referee saw.

Regardless, it's a clear handball. No questions asked. Luck is indeed needed to win. Unfortunately we were gifted a bit too much of it to feel good about it. Bah, what am I saying, it feels pretty great.

It's an obscure call on Canada's keeper, but it's not as if she was holding it for 7-8 seconds. As you can see in this video, throughout the game she has a ~17 second hold, a ~15 second hold, and then a 10 second hold on the one that is called. As a keeper myself, you know to get rid of the ball. It's a rare call of course, but she has herself to blame for holding onto it for so long on multiple occasions.

I wonder how the comments in this thread would go if all things were reversed, Japan 2-1 winners and USA denied a blatant penalty... Pretty sure you wouldn't see as many "shit happens, just deal with it" replies.

Funny how one sided we can all be, I remember going insane when Henry handballed and knocked Ireland out, would have loved him if I was French though.

It would have been 2-2 if the pen was called and scored (and pens are scored more often than they aren't). That puts a cat amongst the pigeons, possibly spuring Japan on to score, possibly leading it to extra time/pens. An infinite number of possibilities could have come from that one penality being called. It isn't as simple as you make out.

We can speculate all we want on the outcome, or whether Armageddon will happen during the game...yes, missed calls are part of the game, but you would have to be stupid to argue that luck didn't play a factor in the U.S's win.

A. It's kind of sad you don't watch the women play because you have missed some amazing matches this past week.

and

B. I don't think it has ever had it's main selling point as good sportsmanship. It's pretty similar to the men's game in many ways - Brazilians play with flair and still dive (yeah, you Erika), the Germans are very technical, and England never wins major tournaments.

What I noticed is that women's games have more playing time. They just want to get the shit done, even if they are winning. Very few dives and pushing the ball a couple of feet up on free kicks and all that time-wasting tactics/bull you see in men's games.

They are a bit reckless it might appear, but that's when the opponent takes advantage and takes the fans out of their seats. Very entertaining.

Doesn't look intentional. It's hard to control the reflex to lift your arm when a ball is blasted towards you. Some players are better at controlling it than others. I wouldn't say it was intentional....it's possible, but unlikely.

aren't you instructed all your life not to touch the ball if you play soccer? Its not like all of a sudden you're taught not to touch the ball. I played with in gym class with soccer players who were on the team. They ALL have their hands down or slightly behind them to prevent this kind of thing from happening

I'm just giving her the benefit of the doubt because it was an important game and it would take a great deal of stupidity to do such a thing intentionally. I'm not saying it wasn't intentional, just saying mistakes do happen. Even pros screw up from time to time.

Meh, I read the US vs Canada thread the other day (I think it was on
/r/olympics). And it seems the sportmanship that was being highly
praised there is mainly because one of the player kicked the ball out
of the field when there's another player got injured. Which is pretty
much the norm in men's football. I don't know, perhaps it's because
the posters in /r/olympics is not as familiar with football rules and
norms.

From what I've seen of women's football is some women pulling another one's hair a while ago and during this tournament I've seen a punch in the back of the head, a blatant head stomp and now a blatant hand ball.

Yeah I have heard this one before. Barcalona, Manchester United. People can never accept the fact Refs are human and mistakes. If there could be a super ref 3000 robot with carding abilities take him in! Until goal line technology is implemented, we need to deal with Human error.

There are a lot bigger teams than the US womans team who have been screwed over by the ref. Look at chelsea vs. Barcalona in 2009. The ref even admitted he fucked up.

I fully accept that refs are human and that they make mistakes. I'm not implying there's some sort of conspiracy going on, just that America benefited more from the miscalls than any other team in the tournament did. This is objective, in the same way that England won the 66 WC on a miscall, Ireland were eliminated from the 2010 WC on a miscall, and Maradonna solidified his legendary status off a miscall.

Poor officiating, subjective rules, and systematic corruption are all a part of football. I'm not suggesting that corruption was at play here, but I'm certainly suggesting poor officiating and overly subjective rules were.

As an American, who has watched both the men's and women's teams get screwed time and time again, I believe in one thing: never let the referees determine the outcome of the game. Japan just couldn't manage to put the ball in the goal a second time. The handball didn't stop a goal. Should have been called and should have been given a penalty. But, Japan should have put in another goal from the field and didn't. Besides, even if it was given, that would only have given them the opportunity to tie. No guarantees of what would have happened after that.

The referee clearly choose not to give the penalty.
That's why I strong believe we should use replays in soccer.
A gold medal, a world championship can be ruined by a single man. Most sports use it, why the hell football can't?

Actually, very few sports allow video review on penalty calls. Most of the time they are restricted to Goal/No Goal situations. Ice Hockey, for instance, does not use video for reviewing penalty calls.

Was it intentional? Hard to tell. Would have to look at how she goes about trapping balls that are struck at her from that distance in other plays. You'll notice that her right arm matches the movement of her left arm but she clearly doesn't intend to stop the ball with her right arm.

It's pretty easy to criticize the refs when you have the advantage of instant replay. I've played soccer for 17 years and was a referee for five of those. Mistakes are made all the time. Get over it.

No amount of complaining is going to change the results. Japan still had plenty of opportunities to score during that game and had the opportunities to prevent the US from scoring.

Blown calls happen in every sport where the human element plays a factor in officiating. Jim Joyce is one of the top and most respected umpires in the MLB, and he blew a call of historic proportions. They happen in every sport, at every level.

No one tries to swipe at the ball in the box intentionally. No ref of Bribiana's class would intentionally not call that with her reputation as number one on the line. Missed call? Definitely. Disgusting? Hardly. Just the way it goes.